IT's 2013 resolutions: Faster app delivery, but less Cloud

Top priorities in the application development and delivery space this year include faster delivery of software and better alignment with business, according to an annual survey taken by Serena Software.

The survey involving 86 participants also found a diminished priority for cloud application deployment, with cloud deployments perhaps having already taken hold. "The one [finding] that surprised me the most was this whole concept of aligning with business just shot up dramatically from the last two surveys that we did," said Miguel Kim, Serena's senior marketing manager. This was rated as an important priority by 48 percent of respondents, as opposed to 21 percent last year and 16 percent the year before. He theorizes this was because an improving economy has participants more concerned with business alignment and not as focused on purely cost savings.

Delivering applications faster has remained the top priority in all three years of the survey, although the percentage who rated this as important dropped from 68 percent last year to 59 percent this year.

Meanwhile, moving applications to the cloud was rated as important by just 14 percent this year as opposed to 23 percent last year and 26 percent the prior year. While surprised the number dropped so far, Kim presumes cloud migration already has happened for respondents, thus it was less-important.

This year's survey for the first time asked about mobile platforms; 36 percent said this was an important priority, placing it just sixth on the priority list. Thirty-eight percent cited reducing application development costs as important, down from 49 percent last year and 50 percent in the prior year. Expanded use of agile was rated important by 44 percent of respondents, down from 52 percent in the previous study. Increasing innovation also dropped, from 47 percent last year to 38 percent.

Serena conducted the survey in December featuring attendees at the Gartner Application Architecture, Development, and Integration Summit in Las Vegas. Participants included developers and software architects.

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